Baby Play Dough

Baby Play Dough | Mama Papa Bubba

If you know me well, you know that my love for play dough runs deep.  I’ve loved it for ages… It was a total lifesaver while babysitting and nannying as a teenager and university student, it was a staple in my Kindergarten classrooms when teaching, and it’s always out and available in our house now that I’m a mama.  Over the years, Miss G and I have created some pretty amazing recipes…  Amazing sand dough, gorgeous starry galaxy dough, lemony dough made with real lemon zest, chai tea latte dough, super soft chocolate dough, celebration dough full of foil glitter, the most fragrant ever gingerbread dough, vanilla mint dough {one of my favourite ever scent combos}, pumpkin spice dough made with real pumpkin…  The list could go on.

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When I started making play dough with Miss G, she was already out of the put-everthing-in-your-mouth stage, so I never had to worry about her gobbling down chunks of dough loaded with salt and cream of tartar.  Now that we have our little Sam though, it’s a whole new ballgame.  He sees what his big sister is doing and pretty much always wants to do the same, plus pretty much everything he touches goes straight into his mouth, so making a dough that is 100% edible and safe for babies just had to happen.

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And while I’ve actually wanted to create a baby safe dough for months, what finally made me take the leap was learning that Love Child Organics, my one-and-only go-to brand for prepared baby food, was putting out a line of infant cereals.  Slightly weird that when I heard ‘infant cereal’ my mind went straight to baby play dough?  Probably…  But I’m so glad it did because it turned out better than I even imagined it would and now I have an awesome baby play recipe that a) uses only ingredients that I always have on had and b) can be whipped up in less than 5 minutes flat.  Hooray for that!

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Not to mention that my little Sam seems to absolutely love play dough already.

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Here’s what we used to make it…  Love Child Organics’ Oats + Chia Organic Infant Cereal and First Apples Puree, cornstarch, coconut oil, and boiling water. Easy peasey, right?  Now I haven’t tested out other baby cereal and puree options, but my best guess is that you could use Love Child’s Buckwheat + Chia Organic Infant Cereal and First Pears Puree instead, though the colour and flavour would obviously vary from the version we created.  You could probably also swap out different brands of cereal and fruit sauce, so long as you’re willing to play with the measurements to compensate for different consistencies.

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Making the dough is really simple.  All you need to do is measure out your dry ingredients and whisk them together…

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Then add the wet ingredients and give everything a really good mix.

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At first it will appear like this – a little dry and crumbly…

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But get your hands in there and work it into a ball.  It’ll come together in no time.  {I spy teeny tiny fingers.}

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Thankfully I had a little helper assisting me every step of the way.

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He was pretty pleased with all of the help he had to offer {and the fact that he got to slurp down all of the remaining fruit puree while I tested the recipe several times}.

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Once you’ve formed the dough into a ball, dump it out on the table and give it a good knead.  Then you’re ready to play!

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Or, if you prefer, you can add some colour.  I so wish I had some all-natural food dye stored away in the cupboard, but since I didn’t, I gave the usual McCormick liquid food colouring a try just to ensure it wouldn’t do anything weird to the dough.  It didn’t.  It mixed in just like you’d expect it to and created the most perfect for baby pastel colours, so if you don’t mind your bub possibly eating something containing colouring, go for it.

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And while I kneaded the colouring into my three little balls of dough? My little mister very happily played with his three little empty fruit puree pouches. :)

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This shot was a total accident, but it may be my favourite of the day.  {Tiny fingers are just the cutest thing, aren’t they?}

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With my colour experiment out of the way, we were ready to play.

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I gave Sam a good sized chunk of baby play dough, a plastic cookie cutter, and a mini wooden rolling pin and sat down beside him to see what he would do.

Now just as a side note, this dough being made from baby safe ingredients obviously doesn’t mean that you can give your baby a chunk and then walk away to do another task.  {I feel like that goes without saying.}  While it’s 100% edible and safe for baby to nibble on, a big bite could certainly cause a choking episode, so please always supervise your baby’s play closely.  

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Watching him explore his little chunk of dough was the cutest thing.

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He investigated it, turned it over in his hands, transferred it from hand to hand, poked at it, and enthusiastically banged it with his rolling pin.

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He even took chunks of it and filled up his cookie cutter, which I thought was so clever.

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Of course he tasted it too!  Strangely enough, he didn’t seem to enjoy it all that much {this being my boy who eats like crazy – and it truly tastes not bad – tried it!}, so he nibbled now and then, but did lots of playing too.

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When we were done, I put the dough in a zip-close bag in the fridge just to see how it would store.  What I found the next day was that while cold, it’s very hard, but after allowing it to come up to room temperature it was once again soft and squishy.  The only problem I did encounter {and I’ve had this problem in the past when I’ve put play dough in the fridge} is that condensation formed in the bag overnight.  The two balls that had not been in contact with the condensation were perfect.  As good as they were originally and definitely worthy of another round of play.  The other two balls, however, came in contact with the condensation and were both a little too soft and sticky due to the extra moisture.  I don’t know if removing the extra air out of the bag with a straw would help alleviate this problem, but I may give it a shot next time.

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That being said, our recipe makes a small amount of dough and I do think it’s worth making, even if it’s only for a day of play.  {What you see in the photo above is two batches – the natural coloured ball is one batch, and the coloured balls are a second batch, just split into three.}

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Here’s our recipe…

Baby Play Dough

– 1/2 cup of Love Child Organics Oats + Chia Organic Infant Cereal

– 1/2 cup of cornstarch

– 1/4 cup of Love Child Organics First Apples Puree

– 1 tablespoon of softened coconut oil

– 2 tablespoons of boiling water

Add the infant cereal and cornstarch to a mixing bowl and whisk well.  Add the apple puree, softened coconut oil, and boiling water to the dry mixture and stir well.  Use your hands to bring the mixture together in a ball.  Dump the dough out onto a work surface and knead well.  That’s it – now play and enjoy!

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8 thoughts on “Baby Play Dough

  1. This looks great! I’ll definitely be trying.

    One of my edible go to’s is just ripe banana and coconut flour! Actually works really well.

  2. This is an amazing recipe that I just used for the first time. I used beechnut oatmeal and then coated it lightly with flour to make it less sticky. Baby hasn’t tried it yet he is still napping but I’ve had fun with it so far.

  3. Tried this with my 10 month old and she liked the way it tasted 🤮. I guess raw cornstarch isn’t advisable to eat though so I ended up just having to cut her off “playing” (basically just eating it) and give it to my 3 year old to play with instead 😞. Turned out great for kids who don’t eat everything without discrimation, however 🤦‍♀️. My 3 year old enjoyed it very much.

    1. Hi Heather! You know your little one best! The one thing I will say is that it’s still very much a choking hazard and babies love to put things in their mouths, so that would be my main concern with a 6 month old playing with this.

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